gold sovereign

8/14/2019 Gold Sovereign

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Gold Sovereign

Mint marks

1871 - 1932 In order for the Royal Mint to distinguish the sovereigns minted at the Branch Mints they

used a variety of mint marks.

Mint marks can be traced back to the earliest of coins, they are often employed to allowan issuing authority with a way to distinguish the origin of the coins with a view toensuring purity and weights.

The British Government uses the Trial of the Pyx in order to do this. Pyx comes from theGreek pyxis meaning small vessel or box with a lid. A random selection of coins were (and

still are) placed into a box which is taken to a council of goldsmiths where purity andweights are checked against a known trial plate.

In 1957 the Perth Mint was having troubles with their assays using the trial plate sentfrom London, when using the plate to assay the bullion produced, they kept coming up

with purities in excess of 100%, which of course, is impossible. When they notified Londonof this problem and finally got them to believe that the assays were carried out correctly,

London requested a sample plate. When this plate was assayed , it turned out to be thepurest gold ever produced, coming in at 999.999 parts per 1000 fine. Perth Mint was then

requested to supply the plates in order to reset their gold standard.Plate 42c as it was designated is on display at the Perth Mint today and is still consideredthe purest of all trial plates.

Queen Victoria, Young Head

Mint marks can be found on sovereigns from 1871, this also coincides with the re-introduction of St George

Young head sovereigns came from three mints, being the Royal Mint in London (no mintmark), Sydney Branch and Melbourne BranchOn the Young Head, St George sovereigns the mintmark can be found below thetruncation of the neck on the obverse of the coin.

On the Shield reverse sovereigns the mint mark can be found below the knot of the ribbonand above the heraldic flowers. From 1863 to 1874, on most London issues, a die number

can be found, see below for more information.

Young Head, St George Reverse Young Head, Shield Reverse

Arrows indicate position of mint marks


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Sydney

S

1871 - 1887

Sydney

S

1871 - 1887

Melbourne

M

1872 - 1887

Melbourne

M

1872 - 1887

Die Numbers

London

1863 - 1874

In 1863 die numbers were introduced to the reverse of the sovereign. There are many

possible reasons for using die numbers. The most obvious is to be able to check andcontrol the quality of the dies, particularly if experiments were being conducted into die

wear. It is possible that different methods of treating and hardening dies may have beencarried out, and die numbering would have helped to ascertain which methods ofprocessing were most successful. Other possible reasons include quality and securitycontrol during production.


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St George Reverse

1887 - 1932

Arrows indicate position of mint marks

From 1887 gold sovereigns used the St George reverse exclusively, the mint mark can befound in the exergue* above the date on the reverse. There are 6 mint marks to be foundand if one includes London with no mint mark, there is 7 different versions. The KingGeorge V series are the only coins to have been manufactured at all branches of the Royal

Mint, however owing to dramatic changes in the world during this time, would ultimatelybe the last to carry mint marks. By 1932 all branches of the Royal Mint had ceased to

manufacture sovereigns, later dates are all from the Royal Mint and have no mint mark.*Exergue - The bottom area of a coin or medal, used to give the date, value or countryetc, usually separated from the fields by a line

Sydney

S

1887 - 1926

Melbourne

M

1887 - 1931


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Perth

P

1899 - 1931

Ottawa

C

1908 - 1919

Bombay

I

1918

Pretoria

SA

1923 - 1932

London

No Mint Mark

1887 -

For reasons unknown there is a departure from tradition in the case of the Ottawa,Bombay and Pretoria sovereigns.

Mint marks formerly carried the initial of the city of manufacture, but these carry theinitial(s) of their country instead. In the case of Pretoria it can be easily understood as "P"was already in use by Perth, however for the others it is unclear why this was done.

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